Fitness People

The 7 Trainers You Should Know About

6. Brian Stecker

I’m including Brian for a few reasons. Firstly and foremost, he’s a good trainer with good content. Secondly, when I polled my Facebook readers for suggestions for this list, his followers blew up my page with hilarious frequency. Obviously, he sent them over, but to have such a responsive client base is the mark of a guy who is changing lives (and who has a fair deal of business acumen).

Brian and I met in Portland in May 2011, when he came out for a drink with Nate Green, Jason Lengstorf and me. Brian didn’t actually have a drink (he had to get up early to train), but he provided great conversation and insight.

A serviceman in the Air National Guard, Brian is originally from Wisconsin (and is a Packers fan) and now lives in Portland, where he runs his training business. Appropriately called Boomer Fitness, Stecker’s company caters to the baby-boomer crowd. He accept clients in person, of course, but also has a ton of articles on his site for everything from maintaining strength as you age to exercises to alleviate arthritis.

7. Chad Howse

Ah, my good friend Mr. Howse. Of all the people on this list, I’ve known Chad the longest, having first met him when he traveled to NYC from Vancouver to visit a girl. It didn’t work out with the girl, but Chad and I hit it off great and have been friends ever since.

Chad is a real man’s man — he enjoys a solid bourbon, the occasional high-quality cigar and punching people in the face. Seriously. Before he got into weight training, Chad was a competitive boxer, and has the stories and conditioning to prove it. He's even written several pieces for the Art of Manliness.

Although he still boxes for fun, Chad transitioned into training several years back, after finding weights and adding 45 pounds of muscle to his frame. Given that transformation, it’s easy to see how this guy knows what he’s talking about when it comes to gaining muscle.

Chad wrote a guest post for me a while back, and he’s got a fantastic e-book called the Power Howse Challenge, which boasts a 12-week program that will increase strength and size while boosting your work capacity and turning you into a freakin’ machine (just like Chad).